Beatles – Adelaide Reaction (Purple Chick PC-163/164)

Disc 1 (79:15) The Beatles in Nederland – 5 June, 1964: 1: interview (Denmark and The Netherlands), 2: She Loves You (Denmark and The Netherlands), 3: All My Loving (Denmark and The Netherlands), 4: Twist And Shout (Denmark and The Netherlands), 5: Roll Over Beethoven (Denmark and The Netherlands), 6: Long Tall Sally (Denmark and The Netherlands), 7: Can’t Buy Me Love (Denmark and The Netherlands,

Blokker, The Netherlands – 6 June, 1964 (early): 8: intro (Miscellaneous Tracks 2005), 9: I Saw Her Standing There (Miscellaneous Tracks 2005 + Denmark and The Netherlands), 10: I Want To Hold Your Hand (Denmark and The Netherlands), 11: intro (Denmark and The Netherlands), 12: All My Loving (Denmark and The Netherlands), 13: She Loves You (Denmark and The Netherlands), 14: intro (We’d Like To Carry On), 15: Twist And Shout (We’d Like To Carry On), 16: Long Tall Sally (We’d Like To Carry On + Vinyl To The Core),

Blokker, The Netherlands – 6 June, 1964 (late): 17: intro (We’d Like To Carry On), 18: I Saw Her Standing There (We’d Like To Carry On), 19: I Want To Hold Your Hand (We’d Like To Carry On)
20: intro (We’d Like To Carry On), 21: All My Loving (We’d Like To Carry On)

Melbourne, Australia, 17 June, 1964 (late): 12: intro (Message To Australia), 13: I Saw Her Standing There (Message To Australia), 14: You Can’t Do That (Message To Australia), 15: All My Loving (Message To Australia), 16: She Loves You (Message To Australia), 17: Till There Was You (Message To Australia)
18: Roll Over Beethoven (Message To Australia), 19: Can’t Buy Me Love (Message To Australia), 20: This Boy (Message To Australia), 21: Twist And Shout (Message To Australia), 22: Long Tall Sally (Message To Australia)

Sydney, Australia – 18-20 June, 1964: 23: intro (Make As Much Noise As You Like), 24: I Saw Her Standing There (Make As Much Noise As You Like), 25: You Can’t Do That (Make As Much Noise As You Like)

Original source notes: “You probably don’t need another live Beatles collection, but here’s one anyway, taking us through to the conclusion of their first world tour, with Jimmy Nichols on drums for Disc One.”

“Carefully compiled and restored from the best sources we could find. As always, we didn’t just copy the audio from the listed sources – instead, we tried to work some of our patented sonic magic when necessary. Of course, the quality still varies from dire to delightful, but you knew that already.”

“What’s interesting is that we have two different in-line mixes for (most of) the second Melbourne show. We briefly toyed with the idea of combining them, but they didn’t produce a satisfying stereo image.”

The mere thought of a Purple Chick release on silver label issue must seem abhorrent and an aberration to this loyal fan base. I say, what we have here is potentially the best of both worlds although it is necessary and fair to emphatically state that Purple Chick had nothing to do with this development and, hence, did not sell out here.

Disc One begins with the June 4. 1964 Beatles performance in Denmark featuring none other than Jimmy Nichol on drums as a “temporary Beatle” to cover for Ringo who collapsed the day before at an early morning photo shoot with 102-degree fever and tonsillitis. Nichol played with the Beatles until Ringo was able to join them in Melbourne later that month. “All My Loving” offered different pitched harmonies. Nichols was not as forceful or dramatic as Ringo on “Twist And Shout”. Wild and manic clapping helped “Roll Over Beethoven” take off. The Beatles are heard in extreme clarity with intermittent crowd enthusiasm and howls mostly in the backround. Nichol is able to be heard in front of the mix on this track. The silence between tracks and the crowd reactions is startling. Before breaking into “Can’t Buy Me Love”, the Beatles announce: “The next song will be the last song for us. Clap your hands, stomp your feet.” Clearly the Beatles egged their crowds on.

We move into the June 6, 1964 early Netherlands performance with crowd excitement abundant and whistles left and right. “I Saw Her Standing There” sounds like a distant audience recording but easy to listen to. It is easy to discern that Nichol is on drums on a more melodic version of “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. Nichol offered a plodding beat on this track that had the crowd singing along throughout its duration. It is next to impossible to hear the Beatles singing on “All My Loving” as the crowd takes over again in unison for the entire track. At the end of the song one can hear: “Thank you very much” deep in the backround. “She Loves You” sounded a bit like a karokee sing along with the track fading out before completion. The fidelity improves with “Twist And Shout” but unfortunately includes the announcer, in pristine fidelity, talking over the entire performance. “Long Tall Sally” fades out at the 22 second mark to end this show.

The June 6, 1964 late Netherlands concert begins with the wild and hysterical sounding crowd and a fade in to “I Saw Her Standing There” with some mild, though not annoying, distortion at the upper registers featuring solid aggressive jamming by the Beatles. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” fades in and lasts only 19 seconds. “All My Loving” in excellent fidelity intermittently fades in and out in a continuous 47 second feed.

The June 12, 1964 Adelaide performance is the last one featuring Nichol on drums and starts with the Intro: “Wow, you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be a good audience aren’t you. You’re not going to do silly things like they do overseas. Please stay right where you are. Scream after the numbers . Please, let’s hear them sing. What can you say. Complete silence. Complete silence. You can’t say anything else but, ladies and gentlemen, THE BEATLES!” The concert kicks off with “I Saw Her Standing There” and the crowd noise and hysteria reaching deafening proportions. The voices were crystal clear with the bass up front and the vocals + guitars secondary in the mix. Harrison sounded good on lead guitar with the bass, again, carrying the track. The guitars, bass and vocals were very clear on “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. Prior to “All My Loving”, McCartney states: “First of all, we’d like to thank everyone for the marvelous welcome we’ve had in Adelaide”. The crowd goes insane and absolutely hysterical intermittently. The Beatles, surprisingly, are heard in very good clarity on this track. The vocals, guitars and crowd are heard up front in the mix in “She Loves You”.

McCartney is in fine form with his defined bass lines on “Till There Was You” which also featured stellar guitar(s). The crowd, thankfully, was mostly in the backround to help appreciate this gem. The guitars, bass and vocals were, again, up front in the mix on “Roll Over Beethoven”. McCartney, afterwards, implores the raucous crowd just prior to “Can’t Buy Me Love”: “We’d like you to join in if you would…Do that all through the song”. The percussion from Nichol can finally be heard with “This Boy”, a ballad featuring quite defined and pronounced bass. Lennon is howling to the extreme in blues like fashion on “Twist And Shout” while Nichol can be heard once again. McCartney states: “Thank you. We’d like to finish off…” as his voice cracks and they break into “Long Tall Sally” with Nichol heard again throughout the track. The announcer comments in the Outro: “The Beatles. Let’s hear it. Please stay where you are. Let’s hear it for them…Even though you didn’t do what I said, it was marvelous anyway…”

Disc Two begins with the June 17, 1964 early Melbourne show. The crowd was wild and hysterical. A full band sound was heard for “I Saw Her Standing There” with the bass and drums, especially the drums, up front in the mix. Welcome back Ringo! The instrumentation is clear, the bass is defined and the crowd is at a constant ear-splitting fever pitch on “All My Loving”. The guitars are way up front in the mix on “Can’t Buy Me Love”. Prior to “Long Tall Sally”, McCartney says: “For all of us, it’s really good to have Ringo back”. There was a cut with no “Long Tall Sally” here.

The June 17, 1964 late Melbourne show began with the Intro: “Ladies and gentlemen, the biggest attraction in the whole world, THE BEATLES!” The harmonies stood out on “You Can’t Do That” with Harrison letting it out on guitar and complemented with Ringo’s steady beat. A jangled sounding guitar with a strong rhythm section in tow was captured along with Harrison’s perfect harmony complementing “All My Loving”. It was wonderful to also hear the lavish instrumentation and exquisite touch by Ringo elevating the relaxed + infectious mood on “Till There Was You”. Harrison’s guitar was piercing throughout “Can’t Buy Me Love” with Ringo’s incessant drumming out of control + filling the grooves of a very interesting + compelling version of “Can’t Buy Me Love”. Great harmonies are featured on “This Boy”. The band literally tears into “Twist And Shout” offering a ferocious rock and roll fueled engine that roared and wouldn’t quit. Prior to “Long Tall Sally”, McCartney said: “One more thing. It’s all very nice for us to have back with us, Ringo”.

The June 18 – 20, 1964 Sydney concerts are offered here in the shortest of snippets. Both “I Saw Her Standing There” and “You Can’t Do That” fade out almost as quickly as they start in decent audience sound.

Disc Two closes with the June 17, 1964 late Melbourne Video Mix. We get a fade in to “I Saw Her Standing There” and a fade out of “Till There Was You” after 8 seconds. “Roll Over Beethoven” lasts about 1:17 and then fades into “Can’t Buy Me Love”. “This Boy” is skipped. Nothing really special here with the truncated Video Mix.

I did compare The Beatles/”Australian Tour 1964″ on Yellow Dog [YD 070/071] with the above Purple Chick release for the June 17, 1964 early and late shows and found no discernible difference in the fidelity for the early show. However, there is more gain and punch with the first in- line transfer of PC-164 as compared to YD 071 and YD 071 also sounds a bit constricted with a tunnel like reproduction confirming Purple Chick’s hand in providing some of their patented sonic magic. The above Purple Chick 2 CD release comes with thick + tasteful informative inserts and offers a wonderful chronological capsule of the Beatles June 1964 Australian performances in primarily an excellent, captivating and exciting sounding format that comes with high recommendations.

Check Also

2 comments

I have found in the past that Silent Sea + Secret Trax releases, for the most part, sound quite similar. The Purple Chick release of “Convention Wisdom Hall September 1964 – April 1965″, for example, as compared with its MBE counterpart of “The BEATLES U.S.A. vol 1. Live Anthology: Tour Of America 1964″, however, offers significant sonic differences as outlined in my review of PC-167/168. I would encourage the inclusion of any comparisons of the above with Misterclaudel’s release of the same material.